


No Vacancies

by jayeinacross



Series: The Shatterdome: No Vacancies [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 18:37:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/903534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayeinacross/pseuds/jayeinacross
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Shatterdome isn't what Raleigh's expecting when he walks in. First of all, he's not really expecting a boarding house to be called The Shatterdome anyway, but meeting Stacker Pentecost and finding out that he's retired from the military and runs a boarding house with his adopted daughter is a surprise in itself as well.</p>
<p>[AU: Stacker and Mako run a boarding house, and Raleigh is their newest resident.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Vacancies

**Author's Note:**

> For [this prompt on the kinkmeme](http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/350.html?thread=939102#t939102)!

The Shatterdome isn't what Raleigh's expecting when he walks in. First of all, he's not really expecting a boarding house to be called The Shatterdome anyway, but meeting Stacker Pentecost and finding out that he's retired from the military and runs a boarding house with his adopted daughter is a surprise in itself as well. They'd met years ago, when Stacker was heading the regiment that Raleigh and Yancy were assigned to, and bumped into each other by chance a few days ago. When Stacker had found out that Raleigh was looking for a place to live in the area, he'd suggested the Shatterdome, since a room had been recently vacated and he was looking for a new resident.

"Everyone here are long-term residents," Stacker explains, when Raleigh shows up in the morning with the few things he has. "It's a boarding house, but mostly everyone has been here so long that they're more housemates than guests by now."

"Why'd the last one leave?" It's a nice house -- big and roomy, but it feels lived in, unlike a lot of other places that Raleigh's stayed at over the years. There are photographs and other little bits and pieces strewn around that make it feel like a home, rather than just a place that people go to to sleep and eat and not much else.

"He didn't stay long, had trouble getting along with the others. Sometimes they take a bit of getting used to," Stacker says, and Raleigh has to wonder what kind of people they are, but he supposes he'll be meeting them soon anyway and will get to see for himself. "Mako and Chuck are students at the university nearby. Herc, Newton, and Hermann all work there too. I guest lecture for the ROTC department occasionally."

Someone walks through the front room, and stops when he sees Raleigh standing there with Stacker. He's got slicked back hair, a work uniform of some kind unbuttoned over an undershirt and is holding a cup of coffee in each hand.

"This is Tendo Choi. Tendo, this is our new resident."

"Hey, I'm Raleigh. Nice to meet you."

"You too, man." Tendo doesn't have a free hand to shake, but he makes a gesture towards Raleigh with one of the cups and grins. "I have to get to work, but I'll see you tonight -- it's the non-optional house dinner night, Sasha always cooks, you'll love it."

When he's gone, Stacker tells Raleigh, "Every Thursday night Sasha cooks for everyone, and we usually all eat together then, but you don't have to."

"No, it sounds great," Raleigh says, and he means it.

"The rest of the time everyone just takes care of their own food." Stacker takes him through a tour of the rest of the house. There's a dog wandering around in the backyard, and Raleigh wonders who he belongs to. "Hermann and Newton's room is on the ground floor, with the kitchen and the lounge room, the laundry's in the basement. The triplets, Mako, and I are on the second floor; Tendo, Aleksis and Sasha are on the third; your room is on the fourth, along with Chuck and Herc. You each take care of your own rooms and en suites, and everyone helps out with the rest of the house. There's a chore chart downstairs." They get to Raleigh's room, and Stacker hands him a room key and a house key. "It's good have you here, Raleigh."

"Thank you, sir." Neither of them are military anymore, but it's a habit Raleigh still hasn't kicked yet.

Stacker leaves Raleigh to unpack after that, but Raleigh doesn't have much with him anyway. He's been travelling light for the past few years, going wherever he can find construction work, so the most sentimental things he's brought with him is a stack of photographs he's had and added to over the years, even if the most recent one was taken almost five years ago now.

He's drawn out of his room and downstairs again a while later when he suddenly hears loud, thumping music coming from somewhere in the house. He finds the source of it in the kitchen, where there's also a very large, blonde man with a beard wearing an apron, chopping vegetables. When the man notices Raleigh standing there, he turns down the volume of the music by a fraction, but Raleigh still has to practically shout to be heard over it.

"Are you Sasha?"

"That's right," Sasha booms, and Raleigh wonders if he's only talking like that loudly because of the music, or if he's always like that. "You must be Raleigh. Pentecost said you'd be coming. Aleksis!" A woman who's wearing a ring on her finger that matches Sasha's steps in from the next room, taller than Raleigh and looking just as tough as her husband. "This is the new guy."

"Good to meet you," Aleksis says, and shakes his hand, her grip firm. "Raleigh, right? I'm Aleksis."

They hear the sound of the front door slamming, barely, and then there's a yell from the lounge room. "Sasha, can't you turn that damn music down for once?"

Sasha yells right back. "Chuck, if you want food, you deal with the music."

Aleksis rolls her eyes, and nods towards the door. "Come on, you should meet the others." She points at each of them in turn. "The triplets, obviously. Cheung, Jin, and Hu." They all nod or wave hello. "Herc, and his son Chuck."

"I know," Raleigh says, and Herc comes over and claps him on the shoulder.

"Raleigh, it's been a long time. How've you been?"

"Not too bad, thanks."

"It's good to see you again. I'm sorry about your brother," Herc says quietly, then nods at Chuck. "This is my son." 

"It's nice to meet you, Herc always talked about you," Raleigh says, and Chuck nods and shakes his hand.

The last person must be Mako, who Stacker had explained is his adopted daughter, who he'd first met when he was in Japan after he retired. She steps forward and shakes his hand, smiling. "Hello, Raleigh. Stacker's spoken about you a lot, it's nice to finally meet you. Have you met all the others?"

"Not everyone yet," Raleigh says. "I met Tendo this morning, but I think there are a couple others?"

Mako nods. "Hermann and Newt. They'll probably be back soon."

Aleksis goes back into the kitchen and closes the door, which muffles the music slightly, and most of the others head off to their rooms, but Mako sits and talks with Raleigh for a while. She studies mechanical engineering at the nearby university and she tells him about that, and what the university is like. "Herc teaches as part of the ROTC program that Chuck's a student in. The triplets study science -- Jin does biology, Hu does chemistry, and Cheung does physics, and they play for the university basketball team as well. Hermann and Newt work there too, they're both professors in the science department. "

With perfect timing, the door opens and the last two housemates that Raleigh hasn't met yet stumble in. One of them is fussing with an umbrella, splashing water onto the other one, who hisses at him like a wet cat, and they're both trying to speak over the top of one another.

"Newton, must you really do that, no, don't pretend like you don't know what I'm--"

"You know, if you'd just stop being so--"

Mako coughs, looking amused, and they stop talking when they see Raleigh. The shorter one, with the umbrella, is the first to make introductions. "Hi! I'm Newt. This is Hermann." He elbows his friend, who glares at him for it, but says introduces himself as well.

"Hello, Raleigh. It's nice to finally meet you." They both nod at him, then resume their argument in the next breath and head to their room, squabbling the entire way, and Raleigh shoots Mako a confused look.

She just laughs. "They're always like that. You'll get used to it."

"But they live together?"

"They share the room so they can afford the rent," Mako says. "But they've actually been friends for years, even though it doesn't seem like it."

"Food is ready in ten minutes!" Sasha shouts from the kitchen, and it's echoed by Mako for the people upstairs, who start wandering down after the announcement. The triplets go to help Sasha and Aleksis set the table, and Stacker and Herc come sit down with Mako and Raleigh. When Hermann and Newt come out again, they've finally stopped bickering, though they'll still occasionally make a disparaging comment towards each other. Chuck follows the bulldog that Raleigh had seen earlier into the room.

Mako whistles, and the dog trots over to her, snuffling happily when she pets him. "Raleigh, this is Max. He's Chuck and Herc's."

"Hi, Max." Raleigh reaches out to scratch behind his ears, and Chuck's watching him carefully, but Max seems to like him, so he doesn't comment, just smiles at the dog when he trots back over to him.

The front door opens, and Tendo walks in just in time to hear Sasha announce that the food's ready.

"Got here just in time, Tendo," Chuck says. "As usual."

"You know I wouldn't miss Sasha's food for anything, that's practically a crime," Tendo replies, grinning, and they all head off to the dining room, where Sasha and Aleksis are bringing dinner out.

"What've we got tonight?" Herc asks.

"Beef borscht," Sasha says, and once everyone is sat down with their portions, there's a chorus of thank-yous and everyone starts eating.

When Raleigh lifts his spoon to his mouth, he notices that while everyone else is already eating, every single one of them is also staring at him, which is kind of unnerving. He takes a bite and swallows, then says slowly, "This is the best borscht I've ever tasted."

Sasha beams at him. Everyone else looks pleased and a few of them nod approvingly, then thankfully, they stop watching him like a flock of hawks and just eat and chat. Tendo talks about his job as an air traffic controller, and Mako listens intently while Chuck sneaks bits of food to Max under the table. Raleigh's quickly learning that The Shatterdome isn't a particularly quiet place, but after spending so long mostly on his own, it's kind of nice. He's pretty sure he hears at least three different languages being thrown around as well as English; Hermann and Newt switched to German somewhere in their bickering, and Raleigh suspects they haven't even noticed.

Things settle down a bit after dinner -- the music gets turned off and Raleigh helps Mako with the dishes, then they sit in the lounge room with Herc and Chuck and Max while the triplets play a video game together. Hermann and Newt retreat into their room again, but they can still hear them shouting at each other intermittently. Aleksis comes by later to kick the triplets' asses at their game, Mako joining in as well and even Chuck plays for a few rounds, but Raleigh's happy enough to just watch for now, grinning when the boys squabble over which one is the worst player while Mako and Aleksis laugh at them.

When he heads upstairs for bed, it's a lot quieter than earlier, but in a comfortable way, not dead silence -- the ticking of the old clock in the lounge room, the washing machine doing a cycle of someone's laundry, the sound of Tendo rattling around in the kitchen. Raleigh's got an early start in the morning for his new job, but he's beginning to hope that it's one that'll stick for a while, and before he turns off the lights, he puts a few of his favourite photographs of him and Yancy up on the wall next to his bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Trial by borscht. If you don't like Sasha's food, you don't belong here.


End file.
